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If you don’t have the money to travel to Hawaii or Chile, I have a great new product for you! A Christian publisher has created a series of DVD’s called, “The Nature of God in Nature.” His first two installments in the series contain footage from two beautiful places in the world. The first DVD that I watched was the one on Hawaii. And the second one was on the Lake District in Chile. These are two places that I would like to visit some day in person, but, for now, I enjoyed his travelogues.

I have an introductory special for the DVD’s. You can purchase them for $12.95. That is $2.00 off the regular retail price. You can also watch a sample video on his website at http://www.onemustardseed.com/.

There are several things that I could list today for my “Works for Me Wednesday” post, but the one that is most important to me is a verse that I have been praying as I pray for our upcoming Presidential election:

Proverbs 29:2. “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: butwhen the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”

Since we, as Christians know, that prayer works. I thought this was my best tip of the week!

Can we talk about handwriting? I have seen numerous customers in my store lately who have questions about handwriting for their children.

A popular homeschool curriculum introduces cursive handwriting in K4. That is preschool, folks!

My personal thought is that a child needs time to develop their manuscript handwiting before he/she moves on to cursive. Let me explain why.

As an adult in a computer-age, I do not use my cursive handwriting like my mother or grandparents. Our children are not going to use cursive handwriting like their grandparents either.

Of course, they need to learn cursive, and they need to have a legible way to communicate. But, what if they never fully master manuscript?

What do you do when you fill out a paper at the doctor’s office or bank? When you fill out a job application, do you print or write in cursive? (Well, some people use computers to apply for a job.)

Cursive is faster to do, of course. But most “official” forms ask you to please print neatly. Our children need to learn how to master the printed word, and then they can move on to cursive handwriting.

I recommend one handwriting program above all others. And it is actually a product line that I do not make but pennies on the dollar. But I believe in it. I was introduced to Handwriting Without Tears by our occupational therapist back in 2000. And it has been the program for my children ever since. It works, and it works well. I have even had older children use the Can-Do Print and Can-Do Cursive books even without using the previous books. They are designed to fine tune handwriting in children in grade 5 and up.

That’s my two cent’s worth on the whole handwriting scope and sequence.

We are going to tackle this topic this fall. I hope to get us started next week, as a matter of fact. We studied it 4 years ago, but my boys were younger then, so it is time for a review. It also works as part of a high school student’s government and civics credit.

You are probably aware that I use the unit study KONOS to tie my school day together. The election unit is no different. I am going to be using the book, “Electing America’s Leaders.” And this year I am able to offer this book on my website. (I love being able to sell products that I believe in!) And I am going to go a step further and sign up for the online tutorial at www.homeschoolmentor.com. For $30, Jessica Hulcywill give me the training and background I need to do a bang up job this year! I am a lillte short on time to research and dig deep, so why don’t I pay Jessica to tell me what I need to know! So for a paltry $45.00, I will be able to teach my children about the electoral process. Sounds like a GREAT deal to me!

I am also going to use a resource I found from Time Magazine for Kids to have a brief biography and picture of each of our Presidents. It’s aptly named, Presidents of the United States. Another cool resource is a Fandex of the United States Presidents. I got one at Barnes and Noble during the last election, so I am going to use it as well.

Last night, I found myself thinking of a great article for my blog just as I was going to sleep. Do you think I remember what that great article was? No, of course not!

Since I can’t remember my middle of the night brilliance, I thought I would share a funny story with you. Last week-end, my husband and children and I went on a long week-end trip to the beach. We went with extended family and friends. At the high point of the week-end, we had 12 children and 5 adults in the house. Not too bad when you consider that 6 of the children were our children and 2 of the friends came with us.

We had several people depart on Monday, since they either had to be at work or school on Tuesday. I planned the extra night there, so that no one would have to leave for an early Monday morning check out. And it also gae me an extra day to take my children on a field trip on Tuesday to the NC Aquarium at Ft. Fisher.

So Tuesday morning, I wake up and know that I have a lot to get together and packed in our van, and I was the only adult left, and I had 8 children to get out the door. Fortuunately, I had 4 teenagers, so I had a lot of help. We were able to get everything loaded into the van before 9:00 am, and we had the housekeeping things completed as well. The house we shared with family was large, so I did not walk through every room to check for missing items. My goal was to make sure I had 8 children in the van!

So we left our little beach getaway and checked out with the rental agency and were on our merry way to the aquarium. Everything went so smoothly, and we finished touring the aquarium around noon. And we started our long ride back across our beautiful state.

After a 6.5 hour ride home, we unloaded our van. My 5-yr-old was missing his pillow after we had everything carried in. I didn’t think leaving a pillow behind was a big deal. So we found him another pillow for the night.

On Wednesday morning, I received a phone call from our rental agent. The housekeeping ladies found my 5-yr-old’s pillow, suitcase of clothes, and bag of toys in one of the bedrooms. If you know me at all, you know that I *used* to be really good at keeping up with *stuff.* Now that I have 6 children, I am not as good at it. I am just thankful when I count all six children in their seats when we load up the van. In this case, I had 8 children to be accountable for!

I don’t know how many times we have forgotten the diaper bag, or pacifier, or shoes for the littlest one when we go somewhere. I am becoming quite unemcumbered of *stuff.* Sometimes this is a good thing, and some times, it is not a good thing.

Fortunately, my rental agent is sending a package to me with my 5-yr-old’s belongings. And I am thankful we are all home safe and sound minus a little *stuff.*

Jacque hosts the Saturday Psalm and Praise, and tonight I was reading through two chapters of Psalms. In Psalm chapter 40, the Lord really spoke to me about how He set my feet upon a solid rock.

Psalm 40: 2 – “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.”

Psalm 41:5 – “Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish?”

Psalm 41:7 – “All that hate me whisper together against me; against me do they devise my hurt.”

Psalm 41:11 – “By this I know that thou favorest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.”

There are a lot of things that have happened in my life in the past two weeks. And some of it has been very hurtful. And each time, I hand my burden over to the Lord, and I let Him take care of it for me. It has really been one of those times when the “principalities and rulers of the darkness” have tried to bring me down. But I am raised up by the Lord. Read this:

Psalm 40:12 – “And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before the face forever.”

This blog will be silent for a period of mourning for the family of Dozer, aka Christian Drews. My heart is simply broken for this lovely family, and I am going to spend the time I would use for blogging in prayer for the Drews family.Tami